This is a blog that will take you through the Rum lifestyles of a fine group of people that enjoy the fun and pleasure of fine rums. We will travel to distilleries, partys, and Rum Events to bring you the Rumstyles of all those we come in contact with.

Bahama Bob's Rumstyles

Saturday, March 4, 2017

The
man behind Haiti's best-known export and most famous rum, Rhum Barbancourt, has
died. He was 65.

Thierry Gardere making repairs after the earthquake

This was a man that stepped up after the disastrous hurricane and earthquakes a few years back put the people of Haiti up on the distillery property and gave them work repairing the plant and getting Barbancourt back into production. He was a very special man to the people of Haiti and will be sorely missed in the future.

Thierry
Gardère died Wednesday in Port-au-Prince after complaining that he didn't feel
well and had trouble breathing, assistant William Eliacin confirmed to the
Miami Herald. He said the cause of death was a pulmonary embolism.

"He
had driven from Jacmel in his car and arrived home at 11 a.m.," Eliacin
said. "He died in route to the hospital." Gardère's great-great uncle, Dupré
Barbancourt, who moved to Haiti from France, founded the company in the same
year - 1862 - that the United States finally recognized Haiti. The country had
been shunned because of its successful slave revolt.

"They
are now on the fourth generation," Eliacin said. "It's a big loss.
Huge." The company's general
director, Gardère was in charge of Barbancourt's day-to-day operation. Under
his leadership, the company came back from a $4 million loss after 30 to 40
percent of its stock was lost in Haiti's devastating Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake.
Some of the white oak vats that had spilled onto the distillery's floor
contained rum as old as 15 years.

"I
started to cry because of the alcohol vapors, well, and because of the
tragedy," Gardère told the Financial Times in a 2015 interview. "I
was in shock, it was terrible." But
even with a significant amount of the cognac-like stock lost, Gardère remained
hopeful, telling the Herald three months after the quake: "We are ready to
recover."

And
the company did. Once scarce, the
suitcase-like boxes filled with rum bottles and stamped Haiti on the side were
suddenly everywhere inside Toussaint Louverture International Airport in
Port-au-Prince. "The satisfaction
he had was that the company was back on its feet," Eliacin said. Still, Eliacin, who has been with the
company 40 years, can't help but wonder about its fate. Gardère's only daughter,
Delphine Nathalie Gardère, lives in France. So do his brother and sister, also
shareholders in the family enterprise. In addition, he's also survived by his
wife, Muriel Lamour Gardère.

"Barbancourt
is a national ambassador for Haitians, an honor, a prestige," Eliacin
said. "It was no longer just for Thierry Gardère. It is for all Haitians,
a national patrimony."